Health and people

Outdoor Enthusiasts Need a Lightning Plan

SUNDAY, Aug. 31, 2014 (HealthDay News) — Those partaking in outdoor sports and activities need to be aware of the threat posed by lightning and take appropriate safety measures, experts say.

Over the last decade, lightning killed an average of 42 people a year in the United States and caused about 10 times as many injuries. So far this year, there have been 19 reported lightning deaths, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In light of the incidents, many of which involved outdoor enthusiasts, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) has reissued lightning safety guidelines.

“It is critical for those who are in charge of sports and recreational activities, as well as outdoor enthusiasts, to be aware of lightning danger and prepare accordingly,” guidelines committee chair Katie Walsh Flanagan, of East Carolina University, said in a NATA news release.

The guidelines suggest that administrators, coaches, athletic trainers, parents and others involved in outdoor sports and recreational activities create a lightning emergency plan for each venue.

This includes closely monitoring weather forecasts and reports and pinpointing lightning-safe locations, like a building or another fully enclosed space, in advance of events, NATA said, noting unsafe locations include picnic shelters or tables, bus shelters and trees.

Among their other guidelines:

Time how long it takes to get to safe locations and plan accordingly.

Establish guidelines for suspending and resuming sports or activities. Do not go back outdoors until at least 30 minutes after the last lightning strike or sound of thunder.

In large sports venues, have a safety plan for spectators, including a plan for safe and orderly evacuation to previously identified safe locations, and know how long it will take to move them out of the facility.

If someone is struck by lightning, move them to a safe location when possible. If an automated external defibrillator is available, use it on victims who don’t have a pulse or are unconscious.

The guidelines are published in NATA’s Journal of Athletic Training.

More information

The U.S. National Weather Service has more about lightning safety.

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Drug Gives ‘New Hope’ Against Heart Failure, Expert Says

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

SATURDAY, Aug. 30, 2014 (HealthDay News) — In a head-to-head comparison, an experimental drug was more effective than standard treatment at preventing deaths and hospitalizations in heart failure patients.

According to the study authors, the trial was stopped early because of the marked benefit of the new drug, dubbed LCZ696.

In the trial, 26.5 percent of those getting the standard medication, enalapril (Vasotec), either died or were hospitalized due to heart failure, compared with 21.8 percent of those on the new drug. Enalapril belongs to a class of blood pressure-lowering medications known as ACE inhibitors.

“LCZ696 could become the new gold standard, replacing ACE inhibitors,” said lead researcher Dr. John McMurray, a professor of cardiology at the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland.

LCZ696 combines two blood pressure drugs — an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) and the neprilysin inhibitor known as sacubitril.

“We found that LCZ696 was superior to the gold-standard ACE inhibitor for heart failure — an ACE inhibitor being the absolute cornerstone of treatment for this problem,” he said.

Not only did LCZ696 beat enalapril, but it did that even when added to other treatments, McMurray noted.

“The new treatment was very well tolerated, with no significant safety concerns,” he added.

The report was published online Aug. 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine, to coincide with a presentation at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Barcelona. The trial was funded by Novartis, the maker of LCZ696.

Dr. Mariell Jessup, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, said, “There is new hope for heart failure.”

She added, “We have not had a new drug for heart failure for many years. LCZ696 is a unique compound that may represent a new approach.”

Doctors have relied on ACE inhibitors for over two decades, she said. According to Jessup, who wrote an accompanying editorial, “Newer drugs that work via alternate pathways may [show] benefit beyond the medical therapy that is used today.”

For the study, over 8,400 patients with heart failure were randomly chosen to receive LCZ696 or enalapril.

Over an average of 27 months of follow-up, LCZ696 reduced the risk of hospitalization for heart failure by 21 percent, compared to enalapril, the findings showed.

Moreover, among the 1,251 people who died from heart disease during the trial, 558 were taking LCZ696 (13.3 percent) and 693 were taking enalapril (16.5 percent), the researchers noted.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, commented, “The results of this study are terrific news for patients with heart failure, and represent landmark findings.”

If approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, this new medication should help doctors improve outcomes for the millions of men and women with chronic heart failure worldwide, he said.

More information

Visit the American Heart Association for more on heart failure.

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Spaceflight Might Weaken Astronauts’ Immune Systems

FRIDAY, Aug. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) — Astronauts may be at heightened risk of illness because space travel appears to disrupt human immune systems, a new study suggests.

That could be a real problem on any long missions to asteroids, the moon and Mars undertaken in the future, because getting a cold or flu while in space can be dangerous, NASA researchers say.

They found that the distribution of immune cells in the blood of International Space Station crew members remains relatively unchanged during their time in space. However, some immune cell activity is much lower than normal, while other activity is heightened.

The NASA team described the space station crew members’ immune systems as being “confused.” Reduced immune cell activity may prevent an appropriate response to threats from germs or viruses, while increased activity may lead to excessive responses that result in problems such as increased allergy symptoms and persistent rashes.

Astronauts’ immune systems are likely being altered by many factors associated with the overall spaceflight environment, added Brian Crucian, a biological studies and immunology expert at NASA.

“Things like radiation, microbes, stress, microgravity, altered sleep cycles and isolation could all have an effect on crew member immune systems,” he said in a NASA news release. “If this situation persisted for longer deep space missions, it could possibly increase risk of infection, hypersensitivity, or autoimmune issues for exploration astronauts.”

Crucian and his colleagues analyzed the blood plasma of 28 space station crew members before, during and after their missions. The study was published recently in the Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research.

It’s not known if the immune system changes that occur during spaceflight increase astronauts’ risk for health problems during long missions, and further research is needed to determine if that is the case, Crucian said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more about the immune system.

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Take Steps to Control Bunions

FRIDAY, Aug. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) — If you have bunions, taking care of them now can help you avoid more serious treatment later, an expert says.

A bunion is a bump that forms on the joint of the big toe when bone or tissue moves out of place and extends beyond the normal anatomy of the toe. Left untreated, bunions can cause debilitating pain and may require surgery to correct, said Brent Rosenthal, a podiatrist and podiatric surgeon at CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, N.J.

To prevent bunions, avoid wearing shoes with pointed triangular tips and don’t wear high heels for long periods of time each day, Rosenthal said. You should know your correct shoe size, which can increase with age, weight gain and pregnancy, he added.

If you do develop a bunion, start wearing shoes with a wide and deep toe box. Shoe inserts may reduce symptoms and prevent the bunion from getting worse, according to Rosenthal.

He also suggested using over-the-counter, non-medicated bunion pads whenever you wear shoes. If the bunion is inflamed and sore, apply ice packs several times a day, he said.

If these initial treatments don’t help, see a podiatrist, a doctor who specializes in conditions of the feet and ankle. The doctor might prescribe an anti-inflammatory drug and/or cortisone injection to ease pain and inflammation. Ultrasound therapy is widely used to treat bunion-related soft tissue damage.

If these therapies fail, surgery may be required to relieve pressure and repair the toe joint, said Rosenthal, who noted that recovery from the surgery takes time and discomfort can last weeks.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about bunions.

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Monkey Trial Supports Ebola Drug That May Have Helped 2 Stricken Americans

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Aug. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) — An experimental Ebola drug previously given to two American aid workers successfully cured a group of monkeys infected with the deadly virus in laboratory tests, researchers report.

The drug, ZMapp, prompted recovery in all 18 monkeys who received it, even if they didn’t get the medication until five days after infection.

ZMapp even cured monkeys with advanced cases of Ebola who were days or even hours away from death, said study senior author Gary Kobinger, chief of special pathogens for the Public Health Agency of Canada.

“The level of improvement was beyond my own expectations,” Kobinger said, noting that the drug cleared the liver damage, excessive bleeding and horrible rashes that are the hallmarks of Ebola infection.

This study provides some scientific evidence for the effectiveness of ZMapp, which aid workers Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol both received under “compassionate use” guidelines after contracting Ebola while in Liberia fighting the current outbreak in West Africa.

Brantly and Writebol successfully fended off the virus. They were flown home for treatment in the United States, and last week were released from hospital care in Atlanta.

The results of the monkey trial were published Aug. 29 in the journal Nature.

Because Brantly and Writebol were given ZMapp outside of a clinical trial, physicians and public health officials have been reluctant to fully credit the drug with their recovery. Further clouding the picture, a Liberian doctor and a Spanish priest subsequently died from Ebola despite receiving the drug.

“We hope that initial safety testing in humans will be undertaken soon, preferably within the next few months, to enable the compassionate use of ZMapp as soon as possible,” the researchers concluded in their paper.

The West Africa outbreak is the largest ever for Ebola, with 3,069 infected and 1,552 dead. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 20,000 people could become infected before the end of the outbreak.

In the face of this health-care crisis, a WHO expert panel ruled earlier this month that it would be ethical to treat Ebola patients with experimental medications like ZMapp.

“Given the severity of this condition and the fact that there’s nothing else available, this is as good as it gets,” Dr. Ambreen Khalil, an infectious disease specialist with Staten Island University Hospital in New York City, said of the results from the ZMapp monkey trial. “Our focus should be now on the people who are rapidly dying in Africa. In those patients, ZMapp should be used, based on this study.”

ZMapp is a cocktail of three laboratory-produced antibodies, which have been derived from two previous antibody cocktails for Ebola, Kobinger said.

In the study, researchers infected 21 rhesus monkeys with an Ebola strain similar to the one raging through West Africa. Then they administered ZMapp to 18 of the monkeys starting on days three, four or five after infection. The monkeys received three doses of the drug at three-day intervals.

All 18 animals treated with ZMapp survived, regardless of how sick they had become. The three monkeys not treated with ZMapp all died by day eight.

Because the Ebola virus strain used to infect monkeys in this experiment is different to the strain in the current West African outbreak, the researchers also performed lab tests that showed that ZMapp does bind to the new virus strain and would likely be as effective against it, Kobinger said.

ZMapp is the only experimental treatment that has been deployed against Ebola during this outbreak, but others could be on the way.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health and drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline are expected to announce that they are starting the first human trials of a potential Ebola vaccine, NBC News reported Wednesday.

More information

For more on the Ebola virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Faced With Prostate Cancer, It Helps to Know the Enemy

FRIDAY, Aug. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) — Prostate cancer patients lacking knowledge about the disease have difficulty making good treatment decisions. This can lead to worse quality of care and long-term results, new research suggests.

The study included 70 men, with a median age of 63. All were newly diagnosed with localized prostate cancer.

Poor understanding of the disease was associated with greater difficulty deciding which treatment to choose and less confidence that the treatment would be effective, the study found.

“For prostate cancer, there is no one right answer when it comes to treatment. It comes down to the right answer for each specific patient, and that is heavily dependent on their own personal preferences,” study first author Dr. Alan Kaplan, a resident physician in the urology department at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a university news release.

“Men in general, and specifically economically disadvantaged men, have a hard time deciding what their preferences are, how they feel about any possible complications and what the future after treatment might be like. If you don’t know anything about your disease, you’ll have a really tough time making a decision,” Kaplan explained.

The findings, published in the Sept. 1 print issue of the journal Cancer, suggest that doctors need to identify and educate men with little knowledge about prostate cancer in order to help them feel more comfortable making treatment decisions.

“If you get shot in the gut, there aren’t many options. You go into the operating room to get fixed up,” Kaplan said. “With prostate cancer, there are lots of options and not all are right for everybody.”

Treatment options for prostate cancer include surgery, radiation, and burning or freezing tumors. Or, patients might choose active surveillance. That means they don’t receive treatment but are closely monitored for changes in their cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. This year, about 233,000 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and nearly 30,000 will die from the disease, according to the university news release.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about prostate cancer treatment.

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Feeling Cranky? It’s Time for a Snack

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If you’ve ever blamed a bad mood on low blood sugar, you’re onto something—being “hangry” (hungry and angry) is a real thing.

Researchers from The Ohio State University and the University of Kentucky put it to the test with married couples, measuring their blood glucose levels daily for 21 days and having them secretly stick pins in a voodoo doll of their spouse each evening (up to 51 pins at a time, depending on how peeved they felt). Those whose glucose levels ranked in the bottom 25% stabbed more than twice as many pins into their “spouse doll” as those in the top 25%.

At the end of the 21 days, the couples came into the lab to play a computer game against each other in separate rooms. The winners could blare an unpleasant noise at their partners, as loudly and for as long as they wanted. Once again, people who had lower average levels of glucose were more aggressive, willing to blast their mate at a louder volume and for a longer time than those with higher levels.

“Glucose gives the brain the energy to exercise control,” explains lead study author Brad Bushman, PhD, professor of communications and psychology at Ohio State. When you’re hungry, glucose levels drop, making it harder to rein in hostility.

To keep bickering with your partner to a minimum, “the next time there’s a sensitive issue to bring up, discuss it over dinner rather than on an empty stomach,” Bushman advises. You’ll have a happier belly—and maybe even a happier relationship.

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A Total-Body Move to Get Sculpted Like Shakira

Photo: Getty/WireImage

Regardless of which team you root for on The Voice, there’s one thing we can all agree on: We’d turn our chairs around to glimpse Shakira’s smokin’ hot body.

One move that helps keep the 37-year-old mom (and host of seasons 4 and 6) in stage-ready shape is the Jackknife with a Twist. “It challenges the body from every angle and especially hits the core,” says Anna Kaiser, founder of AKT inMotion in New York City, who trains the pop star.

Here’s how to do it: Start in a plank position (palms under shoulders, back flat, and legs extended behind you) with your shins on top of a stability ball (A). Press down on the ball with your shins as you lift your hips toward ceiling, then bend your knees and bring them in toward your left shoulder while twisting your midsection (B). Extend your legs and return to a plank. Do 30 reps, alternating sides. Do 3 sets 3 to 5 times a week.

look-like-shakira

RELATED: 20 Ways to Do a Plank

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Biggest Ever Weekly Rise in Ebola Cases, U.N. Agency Says

FRIDAY, Aug. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) — The West African Ebola outbreak took a more deadly turn Friday with the World Health Organization announcing an estimated 500 new cases this week — the biggest jump in infections so far.

Most of the new cases arose in Liberia, the U.N. health agency said, but cases in Guinea and Sierra Leone also rose sharply, the Associated Press reported.

“There are serious problems with case management and infection prevention and control,” according to the WHO report. “The situation is worsening in Liberia and Sierra Leone.”

Senegal — a prime tourist destination in the region — has also now recorded its first case, an infected university student from Guinea who sought treatment at a hospital in Senegal’s capital city, Dakar, the AP reported.

According to Senegal’s Health Minister, Awa Marie Coll Seck, the young man had had contact with Ebola patients in Guinea and has now been placed under quarantine. Tests have confirmed he is infected with Ebola virus, the AP said.

The news follows a WHO update released on Thursday that warned that the deadly Ebola outbreak hitting five West African nations could eventually infect more than 20,000 people.

Already the largest Ebola outbreak ever, the viral infection has produced 3,069 cases so far and killed 1,552 people in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, with Senegal now added to that list.

Nearly 40 percent of the total number of reported cases have occurred in the past three weeks, the health agency said.

“This far outstrips any historic Ebola outbreak in numbers. The largest outbreak in the past was about 400 cases,” Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO’s assistant director-general for emergency operations, said at a news conference, the AP reported.

In the meantime, many American universities say they plan to run extra health checks on college students arriving from the affected region.

According to the AP, about 30 students from Nigeria are expected to arrive this semester at the University of Illinois. According to Dr. Robert Palinkas, director of the university’s health center, the Nigerian students will be asked to undergo a temperature check for signs of fever and to have a private discussion about Ebola when they arrive at the university health center for required immunization paperwork and tuberculosis testing.

Health experts stress that the threat to U.S. college students remains very small, but Palinkas told the AP that the added precautions should reassure parents.

“Parents are comforted to know that there is a screening process, that we are alert for it, that we are prepared for it,” he said, “and that we’re doing everything we can without infringing on the rights of anybody to make sure their son or daughter is going to have the lowest risk possible.”

Similar precautions are being conducted at the University at Buffalo in New York, Mercer University in Georgia, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and the University of Akron in Ohio, the AP said.

In response to the crisis, WHO unveiled a battle plan Thursday that calls for stopping Ebola transmissions within six to nine months, while “rapidly managing the consequences of any further international spread,” the WHO said in a news release.

The plan calls for spending $489 million over the next nine months and enlisting 750 international workers and 12,000 national workers, the AP reported.

Also Thursday, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it would begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine in humans next week. It will be tested in 20 healthy adults in Maryland to see if it’s safe and able to produce an appropriate immune system response.

The vaccine was developed by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and drug maker GlaxoSmithKline. It will also be tested on healthy volunteers in Great Britain and the West African nations of Gambia and Mali, the NIH said.

Unlike diseases such as tuberculosis or flu, Ebola isn’t spread by breathing air from an infected person. Transmission requires direct contact with blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected living or dead persons or animals, according to the WHO.

Ebola, one of the world’s most virulent diseases, kills up to 90 percent of people it infects. Symptoms include a sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, poor kidney and liver function and, in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.

Many of those killed during the current Ebola outbreak have been health care workers.

According to the CDC, health care workers must be able to recognize a case of Ebola and be ready to use “isolation precautions or barrier nursing techniques.” Barrier nursing techniques include:

wearing protective clothing, such as masks, gloves, gowns, and goggles;

using infection-control measures, including complete equipment sterilization and routine use of disinfectant;

isolating patients with Ebola from contact with unprotected persons.

The aim of these techniques is to avoid contact with the blood or secretions of an infected patient, the CDC said.

More information

For more on Ebola virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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